Precious Christmas, 5, with her grandmother, Claudette Davis. Precious walked by herself down Mississippi 27 to find her mother after Davis collapsed at their home. (The Vicksburg Post/MELANIE DUNCAN)

[05/21/01] When Precious Christmas set out from Beechwood Estates last Friday, she wasn’t thinking about the dangers of walking along the highway or the pain of the hot pavement on her bare feet.

She had only one thought in mind reaching her mother at Beechwood Elementary School before it was too late for her diabetic grandmother, who had fallen and slipped into unconsciousness.

The 5-year-old girl was spending a typical day in the care of her grandmother when things went wrong.

“I went into the bathroom, and my leg went out,” said Claudette Davis, 56. “My sugar was low, and I fell to the floor. I couldn’t get up and was going to pass out,” she said.

The little girl kept talking to her grandmother, but when she no longer answered, Precious knew she needed help. In a panic, she ran barefoot out of the house to fetch her mother, 37-year-old Linda Christmas, who had been by the house about an hour and half earlier to check on her mother and daughter.

From her grandmother’s house on Boykin Road, Precious walked north on Paxton and cut through to Mississippi 27. From there, she continued along the shoulder of the busy two-lane toward her mother’s workplace, just south of Hinds Community College. She traveled a little more than a quarter-mile about halfway to her destination before a driver came to her aid.

She was on the side of the highway, walking and crying, said Maxine Lyles, 47, who was driving into work at Hinds that morning. “Naturally, that caught my eye,” she said. Lyles pulled over to help her and yelled at her to stop “because she was on the edge of the highway.” Lyles ran up to her, asking her what was wrong.

“She said she was trying to get to her mother, and she kept saying Beechwood,’ but I didn’t know where that is,” said Lyles, who lives in Jackson and isn’t familiar with Vicksburg. “She was so clear on her purpose: Her grandmother was sick, and she wanted to get to her mother.”

By this time, other cars were pulling over, and someone called 911. Lyles stayed with Precious until police arrived and her mother was called at work. “When I saw her, I knew it was my mom,” Precious said. Soon after, the two were back with Davis, who was treated and is doing fine.

It seemed like a long walk, Precious said, but all she could think about was reaching her mother.

“I needed to help my grandma,” said the young girl, clutching a teddy bear and reaching for her grandmother’s hand as she told the story. “I tried to find my mom.”

For the young girl, named by a mother who was terrified of losing her premature baby who weighed 4 pounds at birth, Precious keeps fulfilling her moniker.

“I was so lucky, because it could have been so bad,” said Linda Christmas, who shakes her head at the myriad dangers that could have befallen her daughter and mother that day.

“And if it happens again?” her mother asked. “Call 911,” Precious answered. “Do not walk,” her mother emphasized, and then the two recited the house address together. “No more walking,” her mother said, still shaking her head in disbelief that her child made it safely through the ordeal.

“She is such a brave little girl,” Lyles said. “I admire her strength and courage.”

“She did a good deed, but I don’t want her to do it again,” her mother said.